Disney Rip-Offs: The Secret of Anastasia

Before anybody says anything, I am fully aware that Anastasia is actually a Fox/ Don Bluth movie! The real reason why I wanted to include this as part of the collection is that it's still a rip-off of a fairly popular animated movie from the 90s like almost all these rip-offs. And this is in fact not the first knock-off based on the 1997 film/execution of the Romanov family/urban legend that Tsar Nicholas II's youngest daughter had survived. So can UAV Corporation's take on the infamous urban legend do the Romanov family & Anstasia justice, or is this as disgustingly insulting to history as the animated Titanic trilogy? Let's just get this over with.

Story: To say that this is insulting to the legacy of Anastasia & the Romanov family is a massive understatement. I know that Don Bluth's take on the controversial subject also took SEVERAL liberties with what happened to the titular character, but at the very least it acknowledged that it was more of a fairytale with the Romanov family as the backdrop. Even the upcoming Broadway adaptation has taken greater liberties to change the movie's story to show more respect to the family by giving it a much more serious & ambiguous tone given the recent revelations in history. But anyway, it just glances over the revolution & execution of the family via condescendingly annoying narration & instead goes for a cliched plot with Anastasia falling for an obvious villain prince while trying to prove that she's the Grand Duchess to her grandmother. It doesn't really help that there's a massive plot hole right in your face regarding Anastasia's amnesia despite still living in the palace after the revolution & there's no real tension or build-up with her true identity when she fully acknowledges it when discount Dimitri finds her! Oh yeah, and another one regarding the real villain's plan which wouldn't have worked at all unless there was a chance that Anastasia had survived! It's not really a direct rip off of Don Bluth's movie because there is no curse despite taking obvious elements from it, but what makes this even more insulting is the childish treatment of everything. And what makes all of this incredibly mind boggling is...this is more accurate than Bluth's version! Seriously, the revolution wasn't caused by a curse, the Bolsheviks are the (poorly executed) villains, they pronounce Anastasia's name correctly (Anna-stah-see-a) & the Dowager Empress resides in Denmark instead of Paris. But that can't change how...childish such a tragic event is handled with out of place comedy, no pacing, lack of atmosphere & generic Disney Princess style story!

Animation: Like many films before, the animation is for the most part decent yet inconsistent! The character designs feel more like Disney rather than Don Bluth up to the point that Anastasia looks more like a mix of Ariel and Cinderella & it doesn't really help how basic they look in terms of whether or not the characters are heroes or villains. And the way the characters show emotion is pretty creepy And while Don Bluth paid so much attention to detail into capturing the looks of Russia & Paris in the backgrounds, it doesn't even come close in this since most of the backgrounds consist of snowy forests & generic streets/palaces up to point that it doesn't even feel like they're in Russia, let alone traveled to Copenhagen! And of course, there are many animation glitches galore in this mess, including sizes of characters changing, off model designs, poor lip synching, recycled clips & choppy character animation. So despite it being a tad better than other takes, all of these animation errors & the overall look of the film is still pretty bad by direct to video standards!

Characters: Yeah, it's safe to say that despite some of the story being more historically accurate, the same cannot be said about the characters. Anastasia has none of the feistiness of Don Bluth's (or even her real life) counterpart & just comes across as a generic Disney Princess despite the movie's attempts to give her a personality & ends up feeling pretty stupid given that she couldn't see who the obvious villain was.Vladimir (yes, really) is just an upper class Dimitri rip-off as a general training Anastasia to prove that she's really the Grand Duchess while growing to love her except he's nowhere near as charming as the loveable rogue. The musical instruments that follow Anastasia around..well...I can't say much for spoilers because of their identity, but they pretty much rip off the household objects from Beauty & the Beast & are annoying;y inappropriate comic relief which is return is even more insulting once you realize who they really were the whole time. The villains, Prince Paul & Gufenoff (yes, really) are irritating both as a blatantly obvious foil for Vladimir & comedic sidekick akin to Gaston & LeFou, except nowhere near as threatening! And his big reveal as the villain was so anticlimactic & his plan as mentioned before is so convoluted that it's difficult to take him seriously! The Dowager Empress hardly hsa any character other than being cold & strict until she. They hardly go into how heartbreaking it was for her to lose her entire family that it's difficult to feel for her compared to Don Bluth's (and the stage version's) take on the character. And to add insult to injury, her voice actress is definitely no Angela Lansbury! So I think it's safe to say that none of these characters are worth caring about & are about as historically accurate as an iPhone appearing in the 1800s!

Songs: OK, I'll admit, some of the songs in this are half decent. In The Sun is a decent song despite clearly emulating Disney Princess I Want songs, the generic lyrics & being the Once Upon a December of this movie. A Princess After All is clearly a rip off of Learn To Do It with Vladimir teaching Anastasia how to be a princess, except it's nowhere near as fun or witty & just left me bored. Prince Charmless is just a generic villain's song about Paul revealing his evil plan with the Bolsheviks & who he really is.The final song, Be With Me in My Heart is just a very generic love song that Anastasia sings to the supposed dead Vladimir & is just boring to listen to. While they're not as terrible as other songs under UAV's belt, but they're still hopelessly generic & pointless

This movie just baffled me from beginning to end! Anastasia is a much more blatant Disney rip-off than Don Bluth's version with such a childish take on such a tragedy despite the few historical accuracies, lazy animation, generic characters & dull & pointless songs. Heck, even if you judge this movie just as a movie, it's still crap! Regardless of your opinion of Tsar Nicholas II & his family, I think we can agree that this really doesn't do the Romanovs any justice at all. If you try to see Don Bluth's take as more of a fairytale, I can asure you that you really will enjoy it much more thanks to the far more gorgeous animation, better characterization & highly memorable songs. Or better yet, why not take a look at the 1956 film that Don Bluth's movie was loosely based on or the upcoming Broadway stage adaptation if you're looking for a more serious take on the subject while using the urban legend! Well, that's one Anastasia movie done, another one to go...yay(!)
Story: 2/10
Animation: 3/10
Characters: 1/10
Songs: 3/10
Overall: 2/10